We fear our highest possibility (as well as our lowest one). We are generally afraid to become that which we can glimpse in our most perfect moments.—Abraham Maslow In our daily lives, we may dream of success and achievement. We strive and compete in the workplace. We go to meetings and do our part onContinue reading “Fear Of Success – Touchstone Reflection June 28th”
Category Archives: Disease
I Care – Grapevine Article April 1966 By Anonymous
TODAY at noon I walked the two blocks from my office to the park. I walked with a definite feeling of well-being and peace of mind–then I got to the park and sought a comfortable place to sit for awhile, before going back for the afternoon’s work. It was then I saw him. He wasContinue reading “I Care – Grapevine Article April 1966 By Anonymous”
Bright Promise – Grapevine Article July 1956 By Anonymous
THREE years ago an official prognosis for rehabilitation in my case would have read “hopeless.” An alcoholic who could not hold a job, divorced, estranged from my parents, I came and went through prison gates like an official–except that I remained behind the walls a longer period of time. After my fourth conviction I wasContinue reading “Bright Promise – Grapevine Article July 1956 By Anonymous”
The “Slipper” Needs Understanding – As Bill Sees It #99
Slips can often be charged to rebellion; some of us are more rebellious than others. Slips may be due to the illusion that one can be ‘cured’ of alcoholism. Slips can also be charged to carelessness and complacency. Many of us fail to ride out these periods sober. Things go fine for two or threeContinue reading “The “Slipper” Needs Understanding – As Bill Sees It #99”
Letter To The Mother Of An Alcoholic – Language Of The Heart By Bill W 1944
Dear Mother of “J.”: I cannot tell how poignantly I am stirred by the letter you wrote the Grapevine about your alcoholic son. Just ten years ago my own mother, after years of frantic bewilderment, lost hope. Long a chronic problem drinker, I had come to the jumping-off place. A very good doctor had pronouncedContinue reading “Letter To The Mother Of An Alcoholic – Language Of The Heart By Bill W 1944”
My Mind And I – Grapevine Article September 1997 By Knoba D.
I was in my sister’s house, living in the basement, next to the pool table, unemployed and for all practical purposes, unemployable. At the few interviews I did manage to get, I was vague and evasive. My creative genius–my mind–advised me there was something terribly wrong with my life. My mind told me, “If youContinue reading “My Mind And I – Grapevine Article September 1997 By Knoba D.”
The Disease Concept In Early AA – Grapevine Article November 2003 By Anonymous
BEFORE HE MET DR. BOB, BILL W. had spent six months trying to sober up other alcoholics–without success. A conversation he had with Dr. Silkworth before leaving for Akron changed the way Bill carried the message to Doctor Bob and changed the destiny of millions of alcoholics to come. The part of the message thatContinue reading “The Disease Concept In Early AA – Grapevine Article November 2003 By Anonymous”
The Spiritual Angle of AA – Grapevine Article October 1955 By Rev. Samuel Shoemaker
The early A.A. got its ideas of self-examination, acknowledgment of character defects, restitution for harm done, and working with others straight from the Oxford Groups and directly from Sam Shoemaker, their former leader in America, and from nowhere else.” — BILL W. IT was clear to Bill W. from the first, I take it, thatContinue reading “The Spiritual Angle of AA – Grapevine Article October 1955 By Rev. Samuel Shoemaker”
Slips And Human Nature – Grapevine Article January 1947 By Dr. William Silkworth Author Of ‘The Doctor’s Opinion’ In The Big Book
Dr. Silkworth, Physician-in-Chief of the Charles B. Towns Hospital, he is counted among the founders of AA. In his lifetime he treated some 40,000 alcoholics. The mystery of slips is not so deep as it may appear. While it does seem odd that an alcoholic, who has restored himself to a dignified place among hisContinue reading “Slips And Human Nature – Grapevine Article January 1947 By Dr. William Silkworth Author Of ‘The Doctor’s Opinion’ In The Big Book”
Maturity, Frustration & Growth – Grapevine Article By Marvin Block, MD
A topic we often don’t discuss is the importance of how we deal with frustration and the relationship between our response to frustration to our growth and maturity in accepting life as it is. I found this short extract from a much larger Grapevine Article entitled ‘Alcoholism and Alcoholic Anonymous’ written in February 1974 quiteContinue reading “Maturity, Frustration & Growth – Grapevine Article By Marvin Block, MD”